


Of Pinecones and Mistletoe

by NorthwesternInsanity



Category: Def Leppard, Music RPF
Genre: Christmas Decorations, Fluff, Humor, Kissing, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 05:17:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17277779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthwesternInsanity/pseuds/NorthwesternInsanity
Summary: Rick Allen brings Christmas decorations to the Spoon Factory. All are questionable to a point, but none can beat the cluster of green leaves with white berries, calling to catch two of his bandmates beneath it.





	Of Pinecones and Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SgtLeppard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SgtLeppard/gifts).



> Written as a contribution to Ficmas 2018 on Rockfic as a prompt fill for SgtLeppard, who requested Sav and Steve with mistletoe, and potentially an audience to egg them on! 
> 
> Rick Allen is singing an older version of this Celtic Holiday tune: https://youtu.be/c4Pw2xpRmNw

_"Memories of walking home,_   
_From the Christmas party in falling snow..."_

Rick Allen sang pleasantly as he went about hanging decorations through their proud, if still mostly-bare room in the Spoon Factory. This year, with Phil Collen new with them and bringing a much more positive mood with him than that which Pete brought, Rick had decided they needed a festive recording place if they were going to work right up until the last minute before Christmas.

_"...Exchanging gifts, exchanging smiles,_   
_Hanging pine cones in the hall..."_

Joe had given Rick the stink-eye at first for spending so much time decorating, that Phil had jokingly called him 'Grinch Elliott'. Steve burst out laughing on the couch so hard that Rick started laughing, and Sav giggled quietly behind his hands, trying not to let Joe see and get upset.

Eventually, meeting Steve's eyes one time too many undid him, and when Sav broke, Joe sighed defeatedly and let Rick enjoy himself without any more heckling.

"Just out of curiosity, why pine cones?" asked Phil, seeing that Rick did indeed have pine cones that he was attaching to old, faded red ribbons he'd strung along the wall between old nails. 

"That's not all I've got to hang; wait 'till you see what else I brought," Rick boasted. "Pine cones are just easy because they fit in, and all you've got to do is go outside. First trees you reach outside of all this industrial mess have all the pine cones you'd ever need and then some. You have to be careful or you'll turn an ankle trying to walk through them. Then all you need is some string, and maybe some paint and glue if you want to do anything fancy."

Rick in fact had done some interesting things with his pine cones. With a nearby factory that often had fine, white grains of dried paper pulp blowing around the ground outside its doors, an idea had sparked. With some glue and his resourceful mind, Rick had turned the glue-coated pine cones in the mess on the ground and come out of the ordeal with pine cones that appeared to be dusted in snow.

He'd doctored them up further, sticking in sprigs of cedar and holly in some of them. A particularly large one, he'd painted green and stuck a brown, five-pointed leaf in the top and set it in front of his drum kit, saying that if they couldn't find a way to have a Christmas tree in the studio, he would have the next best thing by his kit.

_"Merry Christmas meant lots of whispering,_   
_Special feelings to bridge the difference._   
_All the years we came together for,_   
_Christmas at Home..."_

"You can't be that eager to sing onstage on backup when you have a microphone, or here until Mutt says you have to?" complained Joe.

"Ignore him," sighed Sav. "The singing is great, but do what you want."

Rick hung his last pinecone and dumped out his beat-up, old paper grocery bag of decorations and winked between the two verses of the chorus. On the table lay some branches of holly and cedar twisted and tied together with twine into makeshift wreaths, and a very conspicuous cluster of jade green leaves with tiny, white berries tied on a red and white striped loop of ribbon.

_"And the radio played in the distance,_   
_Oh night..."_

Rick picked up the cluster of leaves, and as he did, everyone knew what it was, and his intention of what to do with it became immensely clear.

"Rick," growled Joe, "so help me, if I get caught under that with any of you, I don't care what you might say -I'm not doing it!"

Sav busted out giggling again, still hiding behind his fingertips, though he didn't bother to conceal the sound this time.

"Oh, you think it's funny, mate?"

He blushed, but only laughed harder. "Of course it is!"

"I bet you're not as innocent as you make yourself to be. You'd try to distract me so I would end up under it," Joe scolded. "That's not going to happen, Sav; get it in your head!"

"Aw, no -he'll just tease you to do it if you end up under it; just like I will," cracked Phil. "I bet you will too, what do you say, Steve?"

Steve smiled softly and waved his hand before his face teasingly.

"We know you will, Steve; don't pretend!"

_"I will,"_ said Rick, matter-of-factly as he hung the sprig of mistletoe right in the doorframe lacking the actual barrier that stood between the open area and the smaller office frames they'd converted to makeshift booths. "You _know_ I will!"

"And when you do, you'd best hope you can get your heels up behind you quick, otherwise your arse is gonna feel it when I come and kick you-"

"Joe!" scolded Phil playfully. "Oy, mate. _Play nice!"_

Rick paused the singing of his song and switched to a much sillier tone, made twice as funny by how clearly he was fighting to keep his voice from shaking with laughter.

_"You're a mean one...!"_

"Mister _Grinch!"_ Steve choked out, nearly tripping over his own feet through laughter and collapsing to lean against the wall by the couch. Phil and Sav looked up and him and laughed harder.

Seeing Steve blushing from his near-miss of making a spectacle of himself and his bandmates' great pleasure of seeing it, Joe shook his head and finally cracked a smile. He rolled his eyes at the mistletoe Rick hung in the doorless doorway between the makeshift recording booths of dividers and the open room, but he did not make any further complaints.

"Ready to get back to it before Mutt throws a fit tomorrow when he haven't got any tracks for him to work with us on tomorrow?" Joe finally asked when Rick finished hanging his wreaths.

"More than ever!" Rick declared. "It's much nicer to work in here now!"

Joe playfully ground his knuckles through Rick's curls and into his head before letting Rick go before him through the divider to get to his drums. Everyone took extra care to go single file through the passage so as to not get caught together.

"Phil, you're playing lead on this one. You got this?" asked Steve, trying to mask the nerves in his voice as concern.

"I should ask you the same," cracked Phil, "naw, I think we've both got this."

Sav sighed with relief when Phil backed off what had started out sounding like a dig. Perhaps they might just make this new arrangement work yet...

"I'm 'not _Foolin'_ myself' when I say I think it's great and Mutt won't have a problem with it," quipped Phil as he pulled his guitar strap over his head an hour later when they'd finished laying out tracks and ran through together.

"Oh, trust me, he'll find something to complain about tomorrow so that he can make us do it again." Steve sighed and leaned on the inside of the doorframe.

Joe snorted and shook his head. "The man is a miracle worker, but if he couldn't find something wrong, he'd pick something to complain about just because he wants to."

"And can," added Rick, shrugging from where he still sat on his stool, trying to twirl a stick in hand.

"Well, that was a good idea pulling out the acoustic," said Sav, settling against the other side of the doorframe. "I like the sound it added, and knowing Mutt, if we hadn't done it, he'd have asked for it."

"Watch him tell me to take it off and do electric." Steve rolled his eyes. "He's gone back and forth on that already enough with the Hunter intro."

"At least he didn't make you scream your throat raw," said Joe indignantly.

"If he says to take the acoustic off, I'll have my words to back up doing otherwise." Sav flipped the end of his hair away from his face to punctuate his remark, and it brushed something hanging low above his head. It was then that he froze and felt his face burning. Forget his face; his whole body was lit on fire. He was sure by how bright it felt in the room that his pupils had gone wide with shock too.

Judging by the look on Steve's face, and how pink his cheeks were getting, Sav knew it had only now dawned on him too as to where they stood, and what they were under. They hadn't just been slipping through at the same time either; there was no denying it.

"Alright, Joe, you said you wouldn't, but who wants to bet if those two will, eh?" hollered Phil.

"They don't look entirely opposed to it, staying there instead of running." Joe crossed his arms and turned to face them menacingly.

Sav began giggling, though the look of terror on his face and the tone chalked it up to pure nerves rather than being humored. Steve, too, began to laugh, leaning his head against the doorway with a soft moan.

"Oh, you two are both as red as the holly berries I hung up -you know you want to! Come on!" shouted Rick, kneeling on his drum stool so that he watched over the top of his kit and looked like a child. He was far from the only one in the room taking on that appearance too.

_"Oooooooh...!"_ Phil's tone rose like that of a three year old teasing their older sibling before telling on them. He then threw his dignity to the wind and began chanting, pushing the childish impression to its limit.

"Do it! Do it! Do it...!"

Joe and Rick joined in chanting and clapping to the beat of the chant. Or really, Joe clapped and Rick smacked drumsticks together.

_...Do it! Do it...!_

"Bloody voyeurs," Sav groaned. "Like fucking _kids_ the way they're acting."

"If we're gonna do it, let's blow them away," Steve declared, and with that, he snatched Sav and pulled him in so quick that neither had an instant for second thought. Steve pressed his lips into Sav's so that Sav's eyes flew open wide.

He didn't pull away, despite how he was so flushed and lightheaded that it was a wonder he didn't pass out.

Reaching out, snatching his arms around Steve's body, and locking the rest of his body in close, he realized was not entirely a response to feeling his legs go weak and his sense of balance fading either. Steve was leaned back in the doorway; Sav questioned if he had also gone dizzy.

When Steve let go, Sav had to lean back on the opposite side of the doorway and both had to stand and catch their breath.

It was then that it dawned on them just how quiet it had gotten around them.

"Well damn if the two of you didn't take that more seriously than we did," Phil joked. "Bloody hell!"

"Bloody hell is right, and Sav, you're going to hit the floor when the blood leaves your face! Steve, be a gentleman and-"

Joe's jab was enough to keep the blood pounding in Sav's cheeks long enough for him to pull away from the doorframe and sit down in the main room on his own. He leaned back against the wall and breathed heavily when the red did drain from his face, and stayed leaned back to keep from swaying and loosing the rest of his dignity in one fell swoop.

Though he was hard pressed not to admit he found it rather sweet when Steve endured getting ragged on by Joe to get Sav and himself a cold drink.

"You didn't have to," Sav whispered, already recovering, "I'm alright."

"We're not here too much longer today if they keep acting like children," Steve pointed out. "We've already done what we planned to do and then some."

Sure enough, after recording an alternate solo track just in case Mutt wanted to be choosy, Phil packed up, and Joe called it a day for himself.

Rick bounded out, declaring he had a few more decorations to bring tomorrow, to which Joe groaned.

That left Sav and Steve lingering behind inside as Sav took the time to clean his bass off, and as Steve packed away the acoustic they kept in the studio. He was placing extra padding cloths inside the case to protect it from the drafts in the walls that would for sure let in the cold wind from the approaching storm outside.

"Oh, how about that?" asked Sav, pointing to the radio just through the doorway as the tune Rick sang earlier now floated over the airwaves.

"At least it's a nice one." Steve smiled sweetly as he latched the guitar case shut.

As he and Sav finished and went to leave, they both found themselves pushing through the doorway at the same time out of habit, and once again, under the mistletoe.

There was nobody there to egg them on this time; no shouts and teases. Either could have backed off if they'd wanted.

But despite his blush, Sav had a warm smile forcing itself on his face, and Steve's own wasn't hiding itself behind his own timid feelings as he met Sav's eyes and took in his expression.

_...Merry Christmas meant lots of whispering,_   
_Special feelings to bridge the difference..._

"Again too?" whispered Sav.

Steve nodded.

This time Sav took the lead and they took their time with the quiet of the moment all to themselves.

He slid his arms around Steve and pulled gently until he stepped forward and they came together, closing the gap between themselves. 

This time, the kiss was soft, gentle, and natural. The way a mistletoe kiss was supposed to be. Sav ran the edge of his thumb down Steve's spine as he felt Steve's fingers stroke through his curls. It was a while before they broke apart, not until the radio had made it back around to the chorus again.

_All the years we came together,_   
_for Christmas at Home..._

"Are you coming home again with me tonight?" asked Sav in a gentle whisper, and somewhat of a spark of hope in his voice. There were reasons they shared, and their own separate reasons, why Steve spent some nights with Sav when he could.

"If I can," Steve whispered back, but the look he was exchanging with Sav told them both enough.

"Come on then." He squeezed Sav's hand as they made their way to put on their coats to brave the elements with. "Let's go home."


End file.
